First look: Hugh Grant as disgraced politician Jeremy Thorpe in new TV drama
The first image from a new BBC drama inspired by the disgraced Liberal Party MP Jeremy Thorpe has been released, with Hugh Grant returning to TV for the first time in nearly three decades to portray the man himself.
A Very English Scandal is inspired by Thorpe's relationship with former model Norman Scott, played by Ben Whishaw, who spent years stalking Thorpe following a rumoured affair – which Thorpe had allegedly managed to keep suppressed thanks to high-profile government contacts and a compliant press.
The affair was finally exposed when a hitman went on trial accused of attempting to kill Scott in a roadside stand-off that resulted in the shooting of Scott's dog Rinka.
With Thorpe investigated for conspiracy to murder, a parliamentary colleague having claimed Thorpe had expressed interest in having Scott "permanently silenced" to not derail his increasing political success, he was ultimately forced to resign from leading the Liberal Party. He denied an affair ever occurred.
"If it happened now, I think... the public would be kinder," Thorpe told The Guardian in 2008, six years before his death from Parkinson's. "Back then they were very troubled by it. It offended their set of values."
Written by Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who, Queer as Folk) and based on the book of the same name by Telegraph writer John Preston, the three-part drama is directed by Stephen Frears (of Philomena and Victoria & Abdul fame) and costars Alex Jennings, Eve Myles and Patricia Hodge. It will debut on BBC 1 in 2018.
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